Looking for some opinions on equipment/build for public dueling de

[Chumtoad]

I'm putting together a fury/rabies wolf for public dueling. I need to keep my resistances as high as I can at all times, and I'd like to maintain 86% FHR. I don't have anyone with whom to test open characters, and I don't enjoy leveling, so everything needs to be as close to perfect as possible the first time around.

First is the question of a physical damage reduction setup.


One-handed: Stormshield + Verdungo's Hearty Cord Stormshield + Blood crafted belt + one or two Bers in Jalal's/Stormshield Assume the belt has 24% FHR, +strength, and some amount of resistance. I'm leaning away from Eld in the Stormshield because the stats saved produce less than two SC's worth of life. Um, Ber, or a rare jewel would be my choices. Enigma's Ber could come into play if I find stash space... maybe I'll dump some of my other item switches.

Two-handed: BerBer Crown of Ages with Verdungo's Ber Shaftstop + Verdungo's Ber Shaftstop + Ber Jalal's + Blood belt

Next is the question of whether to max Oak Sage or Werewolf. With all the spam going on in a public game, summons have an extremely short life expectancy. At least half the players are generally paladins. Those factors tend to make me want to bolster my attack rating over a summoned life bonus which always tries to hug enemy players.

My wolf's first incarnation came and went before I could afford some of the nicer things for him. He had a maxed spirit without synergized rabies, and statted for Grief before I'd found an EBotD berserker. Now he's level 93 with a bunch of unspent stat and skill points due to the indecision described above. (I'm beginning to think I shouldn't build around BotD for blocking just in case I turn up a fancy rare someday... and I do like Grief too. The plan to stat on BotD was the main reason for starting over.)

I need a stat-junky's input here. :jig: Lots of numbers to pore over in calculating those switches. I've looked at them myself, so please don't accuse me of asking to be spoon-fed. I'm not wealthy enough to buy such things as (legit) 20/5 SC's, and I'm too stingy for 20/11's. I deal with extremely bad-mannered people all the time, and I'm in the process of building up a barbarian better suited to cope with them, but I'd like my wolf to be as capable as possible under these circumstances.

Thanks to anyone who chooses to weigh in. :prop:

[Gluttony]

I'm putting together a fury/rabies wolf for public dueling. I need to keep my resistances as high as I can at all times, and I'd like to maintain 86% FHR. I don't have anyone with whom to test open characters, and I don't enjoy leveling, so everything needs to be as close to perfect as possible the first time around.

First is the question of a physical damage reduction setup.


One-handed: Stormshield + Verdungo's Hearty Cord Stormshield + Blood crafted belt + one or two Bers in Jalal's/Stormshield Assume the belt has 24% FHR, +strength, and some amount of resistance. I'm leaning away from Eld in the Stormshield because the stats saved produce less than two SC's worth of life. Um, Ber, or a rare jewel would be my choices. Enigma's Ber could come into play if I find stash space... maybe I'll dump some of my other item switches.

Two-handed: BerBer Crown of Ages with Verdungo's Ber Shaftstop + Verdungo's Ber Shaftstop + Ber Jalal's + Blood belt

Next is the question of whether to max Oak Sage or Werewolf. With all the spam going on in a public game, summons have an extremely short life expectancy. At least half the players are generally paladins. Those factors tend to make me want to bolster my attack rating over a summoned life bonus which always tries to hug enemy players.

My wolf's first incarnation came and went before I could afford some of the nicer things for him. He had a maxed spirit without synergized rabies, and statted for Grief before I'd found an EBotD berserker. Now he's level 93 with a bunch of unspent stat and skill points due to the indecision described above. (I'm beginning to think I shouldn't build around BotD for blocking just in case I turn up a fancy rare someday... and I do like Grief too. The plan to stat on BotD was the main reason for starting over.)

I need a stat-junky's input here. :jig: Lots of numbers to pore over in calculating those switches. I've looked at them myself, so please don't accuse me of asking to be spoon-fed. I'm not wealthy enough to buy such things as (legit) 20/5 SC's, and I'm too stingy for 20/11's. I deal with extremely bad-mannered people all the time, and I'm in the process of building up a barbarian better suited to cope with them, but I'd like my wolf to be as capable as possible under these circumstances.

Thanks to anyone who chooses to weigh in. :prop:

My personal advice would be to go oak instead of werewolf for the sole purpose that I don't believe the ar you gain from werewolf is as useful as the life you gain from oak sage. Sure oaks don't have a high life expectancy but you can always recast them. Chances are if the enemy is focusing their melee on you and only you then the oak has a good probability to last. If they attack it before getting to you the thing can always be recast. I find it very hard to resist to AT LEAST put 1 point into.

When it comes to statting look at both your present and future goals for your character. Including nice weapons that you don't yet have but want to try out in the future. This way you don't hinder yourself later on. Make sure you're fully capable of utizilizing any of these gear switches/ideas. If you don't have it yet but find you might want it later chances are you'll regret it if you don't have the points for whatever it is you want.

Like I say in all of my posts. This is my opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt. Just aiming to help. :smiley: By the way. I understand what you mean about the small charms. I try to "Afford" simple 20 lifers without any other mods on them because by the time I get around to them I've already spent my main stuff on my gear or I'm saving up for 45+ life gcs instead. Have a good one! :grin:

[Verashiden]

Well let's see if I can enter some useful input:

If you're looking for damage reduction setups while having max res setups in stash I'd recommend getting a Dungo. This will free up the sockets in SS and Jalal for Ums to help bolster your resistances. Other than that your setups look fine.

Kiba and I used to adamantly suggest maxing WW over Oak for the same reason you mentioned. It likes kissing enemies and finding unique ways to kamikaze at the most inopportune times. However, think about it this way. How many enemies will you face where all the extra AR from maxed WW will be beneficial? The only two contenders would be High Def Smiters and BvBs. That's two classes that are pretty uncommon as most Smiters tend to top off at 25-30k def. Now, look at all the opponents Oak Sage helps against. That would be everyone. Sure, it dies a lot. However, with the insane casting frames of the Wolf you should be able to recast it without losing a beat. That 1-2k life helps a lot more than 15+k AR in the end.

Now for the stats. The way I like to do it is to NOT stat around any gear that I aim to change around. That means that I wouldn't stat around eBotD. I also only stat around one Raven, allowing me to switch to Angelics if I need to and still retain max block. It'll also allow you to switch your gear on a whim without having to worry if a specific combination gives you the needed str to wear it all or something along those lines. Corpse popping sucks.

My .02.

[TheBassman]

I'm now F/R so the skill questions are up to the boys who run those types of wolves.

However, my pubby build for all around dueling is stating around all of his equipment. The amount of life without the use of oak will be roughly 7k and 9-9.5k with oak. I'm not using enigma but hit base str none the less, and mainting a respectable AR (roughly 20k without angelics & 35k with Hsarus' combo). And I'm also hitting 75/75/80/75 resistances with a 25 deep stack to all but poison without any fancy resist SCs. With that being said, if the constant recasting of oak is annoying and obstructing opt for a max werewolf and 1 point oak but stat around your equipment for higher life. If you want to switch out alot of gear for different situations (which for pubs seems highly inefficient due to the multiple types of characters prone to be in a pub game) opt for the max oak and 1 point werewolf, and switch gear in & out to make up for your short-comings in most situations.

IMO, the high AR boost from WW will be more beneficial due to the fact that your AR should be high enough to deal with pub situations without opting for angelics which leaves you room for 2 x Ravenfrosts (which will reduce the cost of points into block) and either a rare amulet with mods that are beneficial to your build (I got myself a +2/30str amulet) or a highlord's which will improve your damage, lightning resistance and give you an added skill point.

my .02

[Chumtoad]

Thanks for the posts.

There were some question marks on the listed DR setups before I added the formatting. I realized today before logging on I'd left it unclear that I was asking to be swayed toward one of those options for each type of weapon, 'cause I can't decide. :grrrr: When I was calculating things, it was looking like six of one and half a dozen of another. If I go with the crafted belt, I'd certainly be statting on it + Thundergod's Vigor. (I haven't done a lot of crafting because I'm a packrat and try to hold onto everything. Making mules to hold all the marginally useful stuff I MF/gamble/craft gets to be time-consuming.)

Regarding socketing, I look at the choices based on the number of charms it takes to produce the same effect. For example, Um in my headgear would be three 5% resist charm spaces, while Shael is five charms' worth of FHR. (Unless it's been fixed recently, 5% SC's behave as if they're 4%, rendering all sizes of FHR charms equally effective.) I currently use Shael in my hat and Um in my shield. I'd only consider switching the head socket for a Ber, but the shield socket is more flexible (open to Ber or a jewel with dexterity and resistances + damage or AR).

One of my reasons for considering maxing Werewolf with only one point in Oak Sage is the loss of resistances when switching to Angelics. I've been using a rare ring with +AR, +dex, and +resistance as primary equipment with Highlord's/Ravenfrost due to my lacking resistances. I've thought about working on crafting a blood amulet for FRW with +2 skills, +stats and good resistances, but I really don't want to give up the availability of deadly strike from Highlord's.